The group decides that it is persephone325 who must be responsible, greedy and wanting more from the project than what it offered initially. They poke through her rig for a while, even going as far as to check her pod for anomalies, but there's nothing. They can't find any logs of her tampering with anyone else's P.E.N.I.S. or really anything aside from minding her own business like she should have been. They chose wrong... just another Engineer. They were beginning to run out of time on finding the Hackers among them. Hopefully the events of the next VR test would prove helpful to their cause.

It felt as though barely an hour had passed when the group began coming out of their most recent VR Test. They began assembling back at their rigs when someone notices they're down another man. It doesn't take too long to figure out that it's Sarena and their attempts to rouse her from her pod fail. Another Engineer lost. Taking a look through her system they find some suspicious tracking software, but eventually come to the conclusion that she was working for the Engineers. They've lost their IP Tracer. The Hackers were getting vicious and the group uneasy... time was running out to save themselves and their friends.

Please try to get your votes in as soon as possible. It would be nice if rounds could be completed within 48-72 hours or less.

She was to the point now where she assumed everything was a Jump. Her hand tingled all the time and her vision blurred often with random data, either real or imagined. There were times when she disappeared entirely into her own landscape and couldn't see any of the others who came in with her. There were times when she couldn't help but notice them as if they were right next to her, chasing their metaphorical tails through the ever-growing landscape. She was fairly certain that they hadn't built the city this large, needing only a small area in which to test their product. It stood to reason that it would replicate on its own as-needed, but she wasn't sure of the reason for the current explosion.

That was what she was attempting now to hunt down. It made no sense for the system to expand capacity when it didn't need to. Trieste felt the tingle of electricity chasing itself down her spine. Her pale skin had taken on a silvery tone, as had her eyes. If she hadn't started avoiding mirrors by this point, she would probably be concerned that she practically glowed in the dark. But the arc of her thoughts was directed toward the dozens of millions of empty homes and cars, all lined up next to one another, with no one inside of them. No one to use them. There were miles of track laid under the ground, and high-speed trains rocketing along those tracks, but no one inside of them. Trieste rode them, to see if they would bring her anywhere, but no matter how many transfers she made or how many lines she took, she ended up back at the beginning, in the middle of the city. The ghost city - the population of which was slowly dwindling. It was a frightening thought.

She found herself staring into nothingness. It wasn't that there was nothingness in front of her, but the city blurred. Every room blurred. She was having a hard time concentrating. This was a mistake. The thought bounced around her skull a few times before sliding down the fiberoptics of her spine and settling somewhere near her core. She felt it in the very deepest part of herself, and the world around her began to tilt. It whirled like a mad thing, and Trieste closed her eyes to try to block out the dizziness. For a moment, her perception flipped. Instead of feeling firmly rooted on the ground, she felt like she was standing on the edge of a great void of air. Up was down and she thought she could feel the slow turn of the Earth below her booted feet. At any moment, it was going to stop turning, and she would be unable to hold onto it. At any moment, she felt, she could go tumbling into the void of the sky, unable to ever find the ground again. It made her feel ill.

Coming up from VR this time was different. She felt as if she had to tear herself out of it, rip her mind out of the clutching tendrils of the simulation. She vaguely remembered the awe that she felt the first time she dropped in, the feeling of rebirth. This was the darker side of rebirth, perhaps. The one that probably should have been some sort of digital Cesarean section. Sitting up from her pod, gasping, she ran her palms over her face. Was she still there? She was still there. Sarena, though, was not, apparently. Trieste felt a stab of regret and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Well, that's just great. Fantastic." Massaging her temples, she hopped down from the side of her pod, shaking her head tiredly. When was the last time she had slept? She heard the gears in her hand chirr softly as she ran her fingers through her hair. "She suspected Sasha. Clearly she was getting close to something." Trieste scowled across the room at the woman she had named, the corners of her mouth turned down disapprovingly.

Things were getting dangerous now. Kythia sat cross legged in her pod with her head rested against the open glass cover. Though it made no sense, she was guarding her terminal. Obviously a hacker wouldn't strike here and even if they did it would have no effect. But on some level, she guarded her terminal.

On another she tried to think. A whiteboard in her mind's eye with eighteen names spread randomly. Distractedly she reached out and typed a few keys on her terminal. AC/DC blared out at top volume, holding a key down lowered it before any of the others even got a chance to complain. Some names could be rubbed off straight away, James Moriaty could be circled and removed from consideration for the moment. It still left too many though. It wouldn't be long before they were outnumbered and that would be the end of it. She turned to her terminal and sent off private messages to a few others of the project team then paused and thought.

"Aadrael" she eventually announced to the room at large before turning her attention to the girl herself. "Aadrael. Three of your votes have been tested, all three innocent. Including the IP Tracer and the Firewall. I don't know if you're just really unlucky or activiely malicious but either way I think we should call it. Luck as bad as yours harms the team even if it is only that. Honestly, your voting for Sasha makes me less certain about my vote yesterday."

As the vote had turned yet another plain old engineer that had only been minding her own business , nothing ....not a trace of anything on her log , notes . What was it again that had moved her to fall in line with the final votes . Distractions ...yes , that had been it . Challenges and even some of them she had failed miserably at .Making her way over to her own computer terminal in a dead silence anger filled her mind as she looked over the compiled data . Flipping one page after another ....what was she thinking anyways had it been that long ago. If the system was being corrupted then of course the data would be skewed to the other side .

Smirking to herself ...well then a change of plans was needed . Time to go old school and create a little back-feed . Letting her fingers move over the keys with a quickness as she shut down the ending loop . How many of them had called out her name , indeed it was an outrage . It was final though , if they wanted to accuse her of tampering then so be it . Least she could get in one good strike against the lot of them right .

Entering her pod ...Sasha was quieter than ever and once again another small prayer was offered up to that man upstairs . Fear was a good thing , least it made one more alive . The trip down was a spiraling one ...aiming herself once again off course into that black cube she had put in the system . Though now she was in a series of tunnels , creating a maze . The download feed from above coming at a rate that was almost impossible for her brain to keep up with . Forcing herself to concentrate as images of those she wanted began to appear . It was as if she was re-creating a crime scene as she tossed the original intent of this leap out the window and took on the project .

When she was pulled back into herself once again ...it took a long time for the woman to realize that she had actually made it out . One thing she really hadn't expected considering they had lost so many important aspects to the system already . Lifting the lid ...she stumbled as she tried to recapture things . Why was she back here ....and then what was happening in the room hit her brain full force . Sarena who had been running IP traces was not coming out of her pod . Across the room Trieste had a look of pure disgust , smirking to herself inside ...awwh did she have a flashback or something .

Glancing over to Kythia as she seemingly was going off on Aadrael . " Funny you should mention that Kythia what vote did you happen to land right again ....oh yes , it was Niferbelle the one that created the nasty Wurm. " waving a finger in the air as if counting things in her mind . " Though you do seem to flip flop around more than anyone I know here. Why exactly should that vote count as a plus for you anyways . Mean any good hacker knows that once the virus is created , there is no real need ...to keep the one that built it around . Wouldn't want Niferbelle to spring up a conscious or anything . Maybe that would destroy your true plans . "

Looking over at Sarena stuck in that pod ...too many of her comrades had fallen and for what ....greed , control of everything . Hard telling how many were behind it all. " Not that I seriously think you capable of doing this by yourself mind you . " Though if she was going to take that route there had been quite a few that had voted Niferbelle off . It had been Sarena that had first called brought Niferbelle's name up . As the pounding in her head became so great , Sasha needed to sit down ...rubbing her temples now as her mind seemed to be bombarded with an internal struggle. To late to stop it though as the program was now out of her control completely .

Everything was so distorted. Peripherie spent her nights doing her best to sleep while dreaming of being haunted by those poor souls trapped in the game. She spent the work days trying to focus on her edits while being unable to look away from the cubicles where engineers once sat, having been accused and fired wrongly. And she had been part of it. Part of almost all of it. And being innocent and gullible was almost worse that truly being one of those responsible. Surely there was someone in charge of all this, making calls, and directing these nefarious plots against them. She started hanging around drinking coffee outside of Trieste's office, trying to glean any hints of guilt. She was the Protocol after all. Who better than her to control things unseen.

Perhaps it was the fact that their own numbers were dwindling while there were still hackers out there, perhaps it was the guilt at being among the first to point the finger at Persephone, whatever it was MC wasn't enjoying the virtual world the way he had before. He was no longer trying the food, no longer flirting with the waitresses and no longer admiring the amazing realism of the world. MC found himself looking into the eyes of every NPC he passed, not knowing if one of them may be hacker in disguise, always looking over his shoulder for someone to sneak up on him and lock him in the virtual world.

MC couldn't be more relieved to leave his pod, but was quick to learn yet one more hadn't. He joined in the seemingly futile exercise of attempting to disengage her from her pod, but of course it was to no avail.

In the end he simply began to feel paranoia, suspicion being set of by the slightest sign of anything which could be mistaken as guilt or involvement. Aadreal

Aadie wasn't entirely confident when she changed her vote from Sasha to Persephone. But after a few emails she was pretty sure Sasha wasn't guilty. And so she changed her vote, piling onto the blame train. Only to have it revealed poor Sephie was innocent. As soon as her desk was searched and Sephie declared innocent, Aadie felt physically ill. Rushing off to the restroom to be sick, Aadie returned to the pod room pale and still shaking.

The next round of tests in the system were...pointless. Not when there were team members locked away in the VR world. Not when innocent people had their reputations ruined by accusations. Settling into her pod she fell into the false world. It seemed so...dismal, rain and cold wind echoing her mood. She had to wonder if the others saw the same thing.

Stopping at a store she took a set of colored markers before finding an empty office. Soon the walls were covered in scribbles and names, trying to sort out who could have done such horrible things. She was no closer to an answer by the time she left the pod as when she entered. Hoping against hope that they would all wake she had to take a second look when she noticed the emergency light over Sarena's pod flashing. “No...no...not...again!”

Before Aadie could even come to terms with Sarena being trapped the accusations were turned on her. “What?” Whirling about when Kythia said her name, Aadie looked at the woman she thought was a friend with genuine hurt. “Me? What? I changed my vote! After...after I...after I found out....” She looked at Sasha. “After I got the emails saying Sasha is innocent. And...I couldn't bring myself to vote for someone I know is innocent.”

Looking at the others that began saying her name as well she had tears in her eyes. “I...I couldn't! You think I could do...that...” She pointed to Analise still trapped in her pod. “...to my friend?! The one time I followed what others voted and we were all wrong! It's...it's eating me up. But you...you Kythia...you switched your vote for Niferbelle after it was clear she was likely going to be fired. When it was clear that she was a goner. Seems suspicious to me, a good way to throw people off your scent. Take out a fellow hacker when it's clear she's doomed. Was that your plan Kythia? Have you been playing me this entire time?”

Kythia rolled her eyes and yawned. "You see, Aadrael, this is exactly what I mean. Everything you say is wrong. When I changed votes to Niferbelle she had Four, I had Six - it was far from clear she was going to be burned. This could be checked in literally a couple of seconds, Aadrael. Every single claim you have made has been wrong throughout the entire game like I say. And its just too suspicious now."

"Ah, sorry it sounded like hysterics, it wasn't meant to. It's been an emotional time and I misspoke. I was trying to point out that the basis for Aadrael's suspicion of me was wrong, and obviously I phrased it badly. Sorry" she glanced from Trieste to the rest of the group, including them.

“You're right. I could have checked it in a matter of seconds. I was relying on my memory which was apparently flawed. What I know was truth was at the time I was busting my ass to get the votes for you changed. That I was trying to keep you on the job. Because I thought you innocent. Thought you a friend. If I'm consistently wrong I guess I was wrong about that too.”

Starlequin turned back from his monitors, abandoning his nearly overloaded compiler, seventeen games of MahJohng and an in-depth documentary on the feeding habits of hairless clams in favor of the impending 'discussion'. Thoughts of their trapped and imperiled colleagues were forgotten as he edged his chair closer, in hopes that the disagreement between the two programmers might become a mass debate session...

Luna was standing at the edge of the building she had almost jumped from two nights ago... she was going to do it this time, she was sure of it. Her tail was back, it had mysteriously been absent the night before. She backed up, giving herself room for a good running start as she had done before, she was going to make it this time...

...she was going to fly...

...

...except as she got to the edge, she noticed something shiny glinting from a corner of the rooftop and she decided to go investigate that instead.

It was a brand new penny, heads up no less, which she picked up for good luck. She just didn't feel lucky enough to make that jump, not tonight anyway. Maybe some other night if the hackers didn't get to her first.

When she came out of her pod, she opened her hand and she was holding a shiny penny, her eyes widened but she didn't have time to think about it because another engineer had been targeted, this time another special.

"F***," she muttered under her breath, and set up a few spybots to keep tabs on Kythia.

Val had a headache. That wasn't exactly the right word, she felt dizzy, too, but headache was close enough. But that wasn't her main worry, anyway. She'd forgotten something or maybe left something behind her somewhere in the City, and she had to find it or remember it before she went back. Increasingly frustrated and perplexed, she retraced her steps, crisscrossed the streets, looked diligently in places she'd never seen before, searched her memory for the slightest clue.

She turned abruptly, and, embarrassingly, ran smack into the side of a building....

....except it wasn't the side of a building, but the side of her pod. The Jump was over and she was safely back in the lab.

Instinctively, she checked the readouts, wondering what had gone wrong to make her so disoriented. But nothing had gone wrong; she'd been removed exactly as planned, everything just as it should be.

Except, of course, for the fact that she'd been absolutely, positively convinced that she'd been in the City for a good twenty minutes longer than she actually had been.

Better check with the System Restore, she thought, before remembering that that had been Analise's job, and Analise was gone. Val shook her head, and immediately regretted it. A hand flew out to steady herself as white light filled the edges of her vision. Clinically, she wondered if she was going to faint.

Then she realized what everyone else was talking about, and forgot all about fainting and dizziness. Sarena was gone, just like Analise, lost somewhere among the code. Cautiously, Val looked around the room, from face to face, wondering who could possibly be trusted. Everyone sounded so sure of themselves and their votes, and she was sure of nothing, not even where she was.

"Kythia," she said, the word almost a question, her voice sounding hoarse and strange.

She didn't quite faint after that, but she fell asleep so quickly that she might just as well have passed out.

And they had lost another great one. Sarena had always been a fantastic engineer...which is probably why the loathsome traitors had targeted her. Bre couldn't find it in herself to do more than sigh, shaking her head, and clutch her tea in an attempt to ward off the sudden chills that raced through her at the thought of standing in that room with such malicious individuals. Her own quiet response was in stark contrast to the eruption of bickering going on between two of the others. Watching with a furrowed brow, she couldn't help but to focus more on Kythia, never having been able to put much faith in the woman.